Delta Omega Chapter, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa
“I HAVE FOND MEMORIES OF MY BEGINNINGS IN HKN AS AN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT. THROUGH OUR CHAPTER’S ACTIVITIES, I FORMED LASTING FRIENDSHIPS WITH MY CLASSMATES. THESE FRIENDSHIPS WERE A HIGHLIGHT OF MY UNDERGRADUATE CAREER AND BEYOND. I’M STILL IN CONTACT WITH MANY OF MY HKN CLASSMATES, WHO ARE NOW PART OF MY PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL NETWORKS. I’M HAPPY TO BE BACK AT UHM, WHERE I CONSTANTLY SEE NEW STUDENTS JOINING HKN AND HAVING SIMILAR REWARDING EXPERIENCES.”
Dr. Aaron Ohta received the Alton B. Zerby Award from Eta Kappa Nu in 2003 and is a member of the Delta Omega Chapter at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). He received his BS degree from UHM, his MS degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his PhD degree from the University of California, Berkeley, all in Electrical Engineering. In 2009, he joined the UHM Department of Electrical Engineering as an Assistant Professor. He is still at UHM, and is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering. He was also a visiting researcher at the Dept. of Advanced Robotics at the Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan.
His research focuses on microfabricated and microfluidic devices and systems for a variety of applications, including biomedical research, tissue engineering, drug discovery, and reconfigurable circuits for wireless communication systems. He has authored over 150 publications in microelectromechanical systems and microfluidics.
Dr. Ohta was a recipient of the 2012 University of Hawaii (UH) Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research and the 2015 UH Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching, the ten-campus UH System’s most prestigious research and teaching award, respectively. He is currently an Associate Vice President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s Technical Activities Board. He is also the faculty advisor to UHM’s IEEE Student Branch.